Australia: Economist warn ETS rush could backfire

Former ABARE chief, Dr Brian Fisher, said there was “absolutely nothing to be gained by going first here”.

“We are a very, very small country. We constitute about 1.3 odd per cent of emissions on the planet.”

Introducing a scheme ahead of other nations was not prosecuting Australia’s national interest, it was prosecuting somebody else’s and “we are going to be damned if we do”.

Dr Fisher, who now heads up a private economic consultancy company, said the government should focus its domestic climate change policy on adaptation because it will be “years” before there is an international agreement on emissions trading between the 190 countries involved in the ongoing negotiations.